The Persian word darvīsh is of ancient origin and descends from a Proto-Persian word that appears in Avestan as drigu-, “needy, mendicant”, via Middle Persian driyosh. It has the same meaning as the Arabic word faqīr, meaning people whose contingency and utter dependence upon God is manifest in everything they do and every breath they take.Dervishes try to approach God by virtues and individual experience, rather than by religious scholarship.